Legend of Zelda: Malon's Hero
by Alleskeins
Summary: [Link x Malon] An alternate story of Ocarina of Time. Instead of in Kokiri Forest, Link was raised on LonLon ranch. Growing up alongside the farmer's daughter Malon, they were in for a life of drama, tragedy and love. Mature content, reader's discretion is advised.
1. Introduction

This story is the first of a possible series of books playing out in all eras of Legend of Zelda. It rewrites known canon, to change certain events that lead to a closer connection between Link and someone he met along his travels. This first one will focus on Malon. As you will read right after this, it will start in the Ocarina of Time era with one massive change in the familiar story that changes everything.

Expect excitement, drama, fun and a whole lot of romance.


	2. Raised in a Barn

**Ocarina of Time Era**

 **Link x Malon Arc**

 **Chapter 1/3:**

 **Raised in a Barn**

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It was a quiet night in the Hyrule Field. The citizens were long asleep and the moon stood high in the sky, illuminating the gently blowing grass.

In the distance though, far beyond Kokiri forest, the horizon was caught on fire. Bright, flickering orange and red lights filled the night air. On that night, LonLon ranch outside of Hyrule castle received an unexpected visitor that would change the life of the resident farmer Talon forever.

Way past midnight, heavy knocking at the entrance door ripped Talon, the bearded, bushy haired owner of LonLon ranch, out of his well-earned sleep. Grunting and groaning, he got out of bed and rubbed the sand out of his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming! No need to make such a ruckus at this hour!" He calls out, igniting a small candle he takes from his night stand.

In a night gown and a bed cap, he trotted down the creaking stairs. The cold night air blew through the cracks in the house, making him shudder a little now that he was out of his warm blanket, but somehow, the air carried a certain kind of heat with it as well.

Shortly before he reached the door, the knocking stopped. Confused, he carefully opened it and took a look outside.

"Hello? Anyone... there?" He called out into the dark. No one responded. Whoever was knocking, was far gone already.

Suddenly, a crying sound reaches Talon's ears and his look was drawn to the ground. A cradle lies at his feet and inside of it... a baby. A boy with pointy, long ears and a green blanket wrapped around his tiny body. He cries, loudly calling for his parents... but they were nowhere to be found.

Worried, Talon picks him up and tries to calm him down. "Oh my god, little guy. What are you doing down there on the ground? Shh, I got you." He once again calls out, hoping to get a response this time. "Anyone?! Your child is crying. You can't just..." The words get stuck in his throat as Talon for the first time notices the skyline. Flames, the height of trees burnt in the distance. Instantly, Talon realizes what is going on and takes the little boy into the house.

"Daddy... what's all that noise?" In that moment, Talon's 4-year-old daughter, Malon stepped out of her room in her white night dress and rubbed her tired, droopy eyes. Her shoulder length, red hair was still messy from her bed head and she still adjusted to being awake. Her eyes widened though as she first saw the little boy in her father's panicky, shaking hands. "What's going on? What are you doing with that baby? Where did he come from?"

Talon knelt down, his eyes flicking between the door and Malon. She was clearly confused and worried, but her father put his hand on her shoulder and reassured her "Malon, everything will be alright, okay. There is something going on outside and I don't really know what yet. You are a big girl, right?"

She clenched her hands in front of her chest, fidgeting nervously but nodding. "Yes, I'm a big girl."

"Okay, daddy will have to lock the gates. Take the boy and show him your room for a bit. Can you do that for me? Show him your toys. I bet he'll love them."

With shaky hands, Talon put the boy in Malon's hands, careful that she could hold him properly. As soon as Malon held him, he quieted down and stopped sobbing. His gaze fully focused on Malon, he hummed and stared at her in silence as Malon gently cradled him. Even though she was scared, Malon smiled down at him and poked his nose with her index finger. "Boop."

The baby smiled back and started giggling.

Proudly, Talon reached out to Malon and rubbed the top of her head. "Good girl. Alright, keep an eye on him, he's going to stay with us for a while. I'll check on the horses and I'll be right back. If anything happens, both of you need to hide. I love you, sweetie."

"I love you too, daddy."

Talon placed a small kiss on Malon's forehead before rushing outside and shutting the door behind him.

Malon swallowed her fear, trying her best to keep calm and make sure the baby felt safe. She looked down at him again, meeting his confused face with a put on, wide smile. "Looks like I'll be your babysitter now. So you better behave yourself, you hear?" She asked in a playfully serious tone.

"Ouhh?" He cocked his head, obviously not understanding a single word.

Malon chuckled at his cute little, confused face as she walked him into her room. Putting him down on her bed, Malon watched the little guy chew on and flail around his uncoordinated hands.

She pulled out a box of toys and poured it out onto the sheets. A wave of wooden and fabric toys spread out all over the bed and Malon excitedly jumped onto it to show them to the baby. "Look here!" Malon propped him up against her pillow so he could see all of the toys she had spread out for him. "This is the doll my mom made for me, and this one is a horseshoe from one of our fastest horses."

She leaned in and whispered as if she was conspiring with him. "Psst, don't tell dad that I have it. The horse lost it and I took it when he wasn't looking. One day when my feet are big enough, I'll put this on my shoes and run super fast! I need to find a second one first though." She explained, putting the horse shoe back in the box. In doing so, she accidentally knocked it over, causing something else that was stuck before, to roll out of it.

The baby's eyes were fixated on it, almost in trance.

Malon followed his eyes and saw what it was that just fell out. A small deku stick with a single leaf sprouting from the tip of a tiny branch at its end.

Malon picked it up in confusion. "This? You like this one? But it's just a stick I found in the fields. Are you sure you want to play with that?"

With grabby hands, he reached out to get the stick with a surprising amount of determination.

Malon shrugged and smiled as she handed it over to him, putting it into his tiny hands.

He held it up in childish wonder. He could barely lift it and still tried to hold it aloft like a sword, resulting in it tipping over and knocking onto Malon's head.

The boy was shocked for a second even though she barely felt it at all. He of course didn't know that though and waited for any sort of reaction.

Malon held back from laughing and overacted as if she was an actor in a theater. "Oh no, you got me! This is it! I'm dying! Wrgghh!" She let herself fall onto her back and let her tongue loll out of her mouth, playing dead.

For a moment, the boy fell silent, thinking that he actually hurt her. Determined to 'save' her, he straddled his way out of his wraps and crawled over to her, poking her cheek with a worried look.

Malon giggled from the ticklish feeling and opened one of her eyes looking at him with a cheeky smile. "Got you!" And reaching up to him, she once again poked his tiny little nose. "Boop! Hehehehe!" After realizing she was fine and Malon started laughing, the kid broke out into a wide, cheerful smile and finally into a laughing fit.

Malon lifted him up while she was still laughing and held him up high. "I think I like you. You're a brave little guy and you're already trying to save damsels. Maybe one day you're gonna be a great hero!" She said excitedly, causing the kid to beam with pride and joy even if he didn't understand her yet.

Malon gasped. "I have so many books I have to show you! Do you want to see my dolls?! We can play Kingdom! I'll be the pretty princess and you'll be the strong, brave knight! Or we can..." She went on and on, listing all the things she wanted to play with and show him as she rummaged through her things.

And so, an arguably scary night... turned into the start of a long-lasting, deep bond between the farm girl and the unknown boy. With no history of his own and no name to go by, the LonLon family gave him a new start as well as a name. From this day on, it was Malon, Talon... and Link.

 **10 years later**

A soft breeze cooled the air around LonLon ranch. The fenced-in horses trotted around unperturbed and ate the juicy, fresh spring grass.

In the midst of them, stood Link, right next to one of the corner posts of the field. He had grown into a 10 year old boy with scruffy blonde hair, wearing a green tunic with brown pouches and a green, pointy cap.

In his hands, he held a long deku stick, hitting and striking at the post. "Hyah! Hargh!"

With sweat on his forehead, he struck the wooden post from different angles. Sometimes with heavy, decisive strikes, sometimes with quick, light ones. He was clearly very serious about it, repeating patterns and stances over and over again to perfect them.

He was heaving with labored breath and sweat was dripping from his chin. About a foot away from the post, he clenched his fists around the stick and launched the final attack of his set. A spin attack.

He gained traction, running up while turning his body. He twisted his back so his face would look ahead before he struck. And just as his eyes faced forward again, instead of a post, he saw a smiling redhead standing in his way waving at him. "Hey, Link!"

His eyes widened in surprise as his swing already brought its weight around. Dragged along by the trajectory, he stumbled past her. "Woah! HWAAAHH!" And right into the watering trough.

A huge splash later, Link was stuck butt first in the drinking water for the horses. He wiped his wet bangs out of his face and looked up to see Malon in front of him, giggling. "Hehehe, sorry, I thought you could use some cooling off."

Link playfully rolled his eyes at her lame joke. "Haha, very funny, Malon. Do you know how close I was to actually hitting you? You need to be more careful!" He scolded her while taking the hand she extended to him to pull him out of the trough.

Malon was all smiles though. "Ah come on, you would never hit me. Besides, you're one to talk about being careful. If you keep doing this routine all day long, you're going to get a heat stroke." Malon scolded him in return with a much more serious tone. Not surprising because she's been acting more or less like a big sister for him while they grew up together.

Carefully, she took out a handkerchief and wiped his dripping face off. "It's the middle of spring. It's not that hot yet. The wind already cools me off."

"And then you get sick again and I will have to take care of you. For someone pretending to worry about me so much, you are giving me a lot of trouble." She sighed, showing a cute little smile afterwards though.

While she padded a mix of water and sweat from his forehead, Link grimaced and tried to get away. "If I don't, who will? I just want to be able to protect you. Talon and the farm too. There are bad things and bad people in this world. One day, we might get attacked and I don't want to be too weak to fight it."

Malon chuckled and patted his head appreciatively. "Hey, I know you're my little hero, but you don't need to stress yourself so much. Hyrule is at peace right now and we have all the time in the world."

Link reluctantly chuckled along with her, pushing her hand off his head with a smile. "Stop calling me the little hero. You're just 3 years older than me."

"And I'm gonna wave these 3 years over your head forever and ever and ever." She leaned forward, teasing him with his shortness and poked his nose. "Boop."

Link went deadpan and gave a smug, menacing smile in return. "I should've hit you with the stick after all."

Laughing wildly, Malon ran away as Link chased her with his deku stick. Even the horses watched the curious display as they ran over the field.

As he caught up to her, Link tackled Malon and rolled across the soft grass along with her. It ended with him on top of her, breathing heavily from the laughter and the chase. He pinned her by her hands and grinned victoriously. "Hah, nowhere to run off to now. I've got you right where I want you. Punishment time."

Malon cocked her head cockily and smirked. "I doubt that. You'll let me go in less than a second."

"Pfft, why on earth would I..."

Link froze as Malon leaned up and placed a small kiss on his cheek. His mind was fried and his mouth hung open in disbelief. While the blood rushed to his head, she used the opportunity to slip out from underneath him.

"Told you!" She winked at him over her shoulder as she once again wanted to run away.

Link shook his head to break out of his daze and bolted off. "Hey, not f..." Link's sentence was interrupted as he ran straight into someone.

Immediately, he fell right back down to be greeted by a disgruntled, annoyed man with bushy eyebrows and mustache. It was Ingo, glaring at him from above. "Watch where you're going kid!"

"I'm sorry, Ingo. Won't happen again."

"I sure hope so! I can't believe Talon runs such a madhouse here. Letting little monkeys like you two run around like headless cuccoos."

By this point, Malon came back, realizing that Link had gotten into trouble. She stepped in. "Leave him alone Ingo. I started it."

"Of course you did!" He barked as he turned to her unleashing all of his frustration. "You come right after your father. Lazy and good for nothing but nonsense. Nobody but me actually works anymore. I'll tell you, if I ran things here, we would actually get things done! You and your family are a disgrace and you don't deserve to run this farm."

She shrunk in front of him and choked back her tears to keep from crying. "How can you say that!?My dad is a great farmer! He's owned LonLon ranch for longer than you've even been here."

"Even more reason for a change in leadership if you ask me. You and your lazy lard of a father are the reason we're not making more money with these spoiled animals. And apparently they're not the only thing spoiled around here." He grumbled as he pushed Malon out of his way.

Shocked and hurt, Malon's tears started pouring down her cheeks. She sobbed and bit her lips as she wiped them from her face.

Ingo was about to walk away, uncaring of the girl he just blatantly insulted. But then, he heard another voice call out from behind him. "Don't even think you're better than Talon in the slightest!"

"Hrmmm?" He turned around to see Link holding Malon's hand and standing proudly by her side.

"You insult the man you work for for being lazy, but he keeps this farm running better than anyone else. Not like I've ever seen you working properly! Instead you use your time to hurt an innocent girl and you're even proud of it! If there is anyone in this world who would deserve the name lazy lard, it's you!"

"Link..." Malon watched from the side, gripping his hand tightly as he held hers. Her red eyes were still filled with tears but her chest felt warm and filled with happiness.

Ingo on the other hand, felt quite the opposite. "Watch your mouth, young man. One day, you're going to choke on those words, and I will be there to witness it whether you want me to or not. Courage like yours is nothing commendable. Brave people are the ones who die first." And with those words, he didn't even give him another look before turning around and leaving.

As Ingo disappeared behind a shed with a bucked ant a pitchfork in hand, Malon threw her arms around Link and pressed her face into his shoulder. She was still catching her breath but soon lifted her head again and looked at Link with a pained smile. "Sorry, I know I'm supposed to be the big sister here and I'm still the one crying. I... thank you, Link."

Without a word, he hugged her in return and rubbed her back. "It's okay, this is my family too. I don't like him bad-mouthing it either."

Malon smiled from the bottom of her heart and patted his head. "Hey, do you mind if we watch the horses for a bit."

Link cocked his head in confusion. "Umm sure... but why?"

"I want to prove him wrong. We're not lazy and we'll get some work done. I'll get the combs and we'll groom them. Been a while since we've done that." She said with a sincere, eager attitude. Again, she was the big sister that Link was used to.

He sat down on a flat boulder, lodged in the center of the field and waited for Malon to come back with the tools.

When she finally did return, she sat down next to him. They looked at each other with a sense of shyness and shared happiness. They let the wind blow around them as they just sat there and let time fly by.

Link looked out over the group of horses. "So... who's going first?"

Malon shrugged, giving a suggestion. "How about we start with the one we know will behave?"

Link looked forward to it and agreed. "Alright, go on and call her over."

She nodded and closed her eyes with her hands held close to her chest. She gave off a serene and calming aura... and began humming a beautiful, melodic song.

All of the horses looked up from grazing but none of them reacted as lively as a little foal that came trotting out of the herd, heading straight for Malon. It had a brown pelt with white spots all over it. It stopped right in front of the boulder where Malon waited and was rewarded with her petting its head and neck.

"Good, Epona. Good girl. You really like that song, don't you?"

"Pfrrrbb!" Epona pushed her head against her hand, enjoying the feeling of being pet.

Malon looked over her shoulder towards Link. "Alright, I think you can start now. She won't make a fuss now. Just scrub her nice and slowly. She's still a little sensitive to the brushes."

He shoved the brush over her sides, careful not to scrape or scratch her. Along with the brush, he petted her back with his open hand. "You're pretty grown up already, Epona. Maybe we could try riding together sometime. You like that idea?"

"Whheeee!" She whinnied happily in response.

In his focused effort to groom Epona, Link didn't even notice Malon slowly coming closer and sidling up to him. She put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

He looked over his shoulder confusedly. "Wh...what? Am I doing something wrong?"

Malon smiled lovingly. "No, you're doing everything right." A slight blush appeared in her cheeks. "Hey... I did this before to tease you a bit but..."

She leaned down... and placed a sweet little kiss on Link's cheek Link, causing him to stop his hands and freeze up on the spot. "...this one's serious. Hehehe..."

Both of them blushed heavily and with that, another day at LonLon ranch came to a peaceful end. One could only hope, that it would stay like this for a long time. But time... has it's way of ruining things that were supposed to last.


End file.
